1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an APR plate device, and more particularly, to an APR plate device with modified holders.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During the process of manufacturing an LCD panel, the coating of polyimide (PI) of a panel cell is carried out by using an APR plate rolling over with the roller. In tool machines like a transfer machine of APR plate or a cleaning machine of APR plate, the APR plate is clamped with its two ends by the holders and should remain smoothness and precise positioning during the clamping.
However, the APR plate is easy to crack because of the conventional clamping mechanism. Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the lateral cross-sectional view of a holder 1 of an APR plate device according to the prior art. The holder 1 includes an upper holder 20 and a lower holder 10. The lower clamping surface 11 of the lower holder 10 and the upper clamping surface 21 of the upper holder 20 form a gap to accommodate and holding an end of an APR plate. The lower clamping surface 11 is a smooth flat surface, while the upper clamping surface 21 includes a plurality of long and thin male-and-female faces 22, which can be used, together with the lower clamping surface 11, for clamping the APR plate. The APR plate is two soft plates combined together and is pulled and stretched by the roller or its own weight. As the upper holder 20 and the lower holder 10 are holding an end of the APR plate, a small gap between the two holders 20, 10 may easily generate a shear force onto the APR plate and crack the end of the APR plate. A large gap between the two holders 20, 10, on the other hand, will reduce the clamping ability to the APR plate, which will suffer a stretching stress by its own weight of the pulling force of the roller. Under such condition, the two soft plates of the APR plate tend to buckle and are torn apart. The positioning opening where a positioning element is passing through may crack due to stress concentration. Once crack happens to one positioning opening, the other openings will successively crack.